Donate Money to Celiac research

There was a recent Request for Application by the National Institutes for Health for research funds to support study of the US prevalence of celiac disease. If current research shows that celiac disease is more common in the United States than is generally considered, physicians will consider the diagnosis earlier and more often. This would prevent the illness from going so far that it causes irreversible organ damage before it is discovered, as it did in Jackie’s case.

Since 1980 studies of the diagnosed cases show that the years of symptoms before diagnosis went fro 14.1 to 4.3 so there has been an obvious improvement in diagnosis. But there are still thought to be hundreds, if not milllions, that still go undiagnosed or are misdiagnosed upon death as liver, heart, or kidney failure or some other organ disease that is in reality caused by celiac. For some people 4.3 years is still long enough to suffer from fatal organ damage. We need more awareness in the medical community so that the simple and fairly inexpensive test can be performed earlier when symptoms apear that could be linked to celiac.

Private money is improtant, too. The research grant only covers a portion of the research, the rest much be donated. Those who would like to support the current prevalence study can send contributions to the attention of PAM KING at:
The Center for Celiac Research, 700 West Lombard St., Baltimore, MD 21201

Donate Blood in Jackie’s Name

The thing Jackie needed more than anything during her bleeding episodes was BLOOD. The thing she kept repeating to us was – Give blood. Donate blood – many people need it.
This is a call to all the people who visit this site, not just the ones who knew Snowdaughter – Please PLEASE donate blood!!